'Till Death do us Part

Each G* sibling-in-law possesses plenty of quirkiness (some more than others *ahem Kylie*). Life is a whole lot more interesting with these in-laws (in order of acquisition) :

1. KYLIE

I think this picture pretty much sums her up. Fun, quirky, giggly, ridiculous, and beautiful. (Talented & intelligent aren’t really evident (& perhaps even contradicted;) in this picture, but they’re also key attributes!)

2. CRAIG

This handsome athlete possesses closet quirkiness. By that I mean that he comes across as all mature & professional at first, then WAM BAM BOOM, he’s flaunting women’s scarves, and revealing his witty self. I love his witty self!

3. LOWELL

I’m pretty sure y’all already know what I think about this guy. Just take every single good adjective that exists out there and wrap it in one big fun ball of Lowelliness! (And yes, there are several much goofier/nerdier pictures than this out there!)

4. DANIEL

Daniel will be an official in-law in August. He’s a funny dude and has quirks up the wazoo to boot! He’s also smart, athletic, attractive, talented, blah blah blah….

I think my parents should be pleased as punch... don't you?!


*I'm not allowed to post last names- just initials:)

Movie Madness!

Despite Lowell and my constant busyness of daily life...

Me at work with my preschoolers:

Lowell studying away (and I'm pretty sure he also looks like this at work!) :

Last week Saturday night spent in this:

Last week SunDAY spent doing this:

(PS- I was totally vital to the process, but there's just not a picture to prove it. Honest.)

...we have managed to watch- and thoroughly enjoy- THREE movies in the past week and a halfish. They include:

Juno

Loved it.

Enchanted

Loved it.

Bridge to Terabithia

Liked it a lot.

And that's our movie review for the month!

Double Delight!

Wouldn't it be glorious to give birth to a set of these:


Or these:


Or even these?? :


Those of you who know me well know that I really want to give birth to TWINS. I’ve recently discovered that I have several things in my favour:

1. I’m a fraternal twin: apparently fraternal twins are more genetically linked than identical twins, therefore I’m more likely to have them myself. YESSSSssssss.

2. We’re female fraternal twins. Female fraternal twins are twice as likely as male fraternal twins to have twins themselves. Apparently my chances are as high as 1 in 17.

3. I eat animal by-products. Apparently consuming such foods—especially dairy products—increases chances of having twins. My bowels have a slight aversion to dairy products, but if they’ll help me have twins…bring ‘em on!

4. We’re planning on waiting a few years before having babies. This increases my chances because the older you are, the more likely you are to have multiple births… except for that we’re not waiting 20 years. Shoot.

And some things that are not so much in my favour:

1. Overweight and super tall women have a higher chance of birthing twins. Again…shoot.

2. According to Dr. Steinman, African Americans are most likely to have twins, then Caucasians, then Asians and Hispanics. I think it’s fairly obvious that I lack the African American genes.

Although my chances of having twins are high, so are my chances of having dumb kids. To sum up a report done by CNN, women with big hips, backsides, and thighs tend to be smarter AND give birth to more intelligent children. I’m not complaining that I don’t have a giant hind end, but I do hope my kids aren’t dumb.

Matrimonial Mania!

2007 was the year of weddings! Several people who are very special to us tied the knot last year, and here they are (in order of date) :

Brad & Kendra:

Lowell & I (of course:)

Josh & Tara:
Stacey & Andrew:
Aaron & Megan:

Amanda & Josh:
Christie & Tim:
Paul & Liz:
Alison & Steve:

2008 brings even more weddings already! We are super pumped for the following people to get hitched:

CARLYNNE & DAN:

Zak & Avery:

Alisha & Tyler:

Lyndsay & Steve:

Duane & Becky:
(picture to come)

Don't we have good looking family & friends?!

Oilers Frenzy

I’m not going to deny that I’m a tooootal schmoozer. Today Lowell and I moseyed over to West Edmonton Mall so we could get in on some more Oilers action. Wayne wasn't there, but there were 11 booths set up throughout the mall with 2-3 players signing autographs at each booth. We thought we were waiting in Ethan Moreau's line (b/c as I mentioned earlier, we’re buds… in my mind), but were told when it was too late that we weren’t in his line at all. It was all good though, we got Penner and Sanderson’s autographs on Lowell’s Oilers hat, and the white shirt that I purchased about 7 minutes prior to meeting them. I'm planning on putting an Oilers iron-on transfer on the front of the shirt. Brilliant hey? Anyhoo, since all the other line-ups were so long that they wrapped around the entire mall, we just went right up to all the other booths without waiting in line and got some pictures. I feel almost famous. SOOoooooooo many many connections.

Extra points if you can pick out the Oiler!

Getting Geoff Sanderson's autograph.

Their hats drove us bananas because they made it so hard to get a clear shot of their faces!

Now he's looking up. That's Dustin Penner handing Lowell back his autographed hat in such a dainty manner!

Check out the ridiculous line-ups of people!

I KNOW you know who this guy (above) is!!

Rolie Goalie!

The End

Celebrity Sighting

Guess who Lowell and I saw last night??????

This guy:


Oh, you can’t tell who I'm referring to? Let me zoom in for you (the dude in the black):

Oh, it's still unclear, huh? Well, let me give you an even better look:


It’s The Great One...number 99...it's....WAYNE GRETZKY!

Last night Lowell and I scored some free tickets to the Edmonton Oilers’ game, and they just happened to be playing against Phoenix (Wayne’s team- and I think being in the same building as him qualifies us to be on a first name basis). Lowell volunteered for Big Brothers Big & Sisters last year, and they were gracious enough to give us a pair of tickets. Our seats were literally the farthest back they could be, but you know what? It was great. $27 (free for us) tickets are better than no tickets at all!

Also, I’m pretty sure that Lowell and I are good-luck-charms for the Oilers. The last time we went to a game, they won by a ridiculous amount. This time, they also kicked some serious buttocks. They scored twice in the first 2 minutes and 15 seconds, and ended up winning 5-2. The Oilers haven’t been doing so hot this year, so that is why we are self-proclaimed good luck charms.

And guess who scored the first goal within the first minute??

My very own Ethan Moreau:

Ethan's the one in black. The 2 goofs on the other side of me are Bill & Ann-Marie. hee hee:)

Anyhoo, the important take-home message here is….I HAVE ANOTHER CELEBRITY CONNECTION (PS- I'm pretty lax in my definition of "connection")!!

Lowell & Julie's First Christmas!

(as a married couple)

Our Christmas started on the 25th when we booted 'er to Carstairs for Lowell's family Christmas. Lots of gifts and lots of fun for everyone!

Kids add a whole new dimension to Christmas and I love it. Here Carmen is showing off her Christmas dress from Grandma & Grandpa:

Now the nieces are showing off their aprons from Lowell and I, and their instruments from Auntie Julie Anne:

The next day we had the extended Taylor gathering which was also a hoot, toot, and a holler.

On the 27th we headed down to Lethbridge for our rather small family Christmas. Marc & Kylie were in Jerusalem, and Craig was in the States with his basketball team. *sniff sniff* We missed them a lot, but Craig phoned (and I have a picture of him in a santa hat, and you pretty much don't get any more Christmassy than that!)


And we skyped with Marc & Kylie. Lowell was, of course, in charge of the technology and we had a good conversation and lots of laughs for almost 2 hours!


Our first morning at home, we took off to Waterton for a day of cross country skiing. First, we had a good brekky and lunch-making session:

Can you believe it....I nearly got stuck with these sunglasses. Mine were in Carstairs and Dad has had this trusty pair as a spare on the dashboard in the van for a good 12 years. I'm pretty sure they came out of a cereal box...

Skiing the beautiful trails:

Dan and Carlynne just hangin out:

Carlynne and I brought such KIDS (i.e., Lowell & Dan) into the family:

Boys will be boys... they're digging a trench of some sort:

All done skiing for the day!


So we headed to Kilmory Lodge for a tasty treat!

That night we went to New West theatre's Razzmatazz at the Yates. It was sooooo fun, but we weren't allowed to take any pictures. So you'll just have to take my word for it.

The next night was Christmas time which began with a deeeelish Christmas dinner. Dad carved the turkey:

And finally we sat down to our yummy meal:

After the meal we went Christmas caroling (even though it was December 29), but for some odd reason no one had their camera there, so again: you're just going to have to take my word for it.

Then we came home to prepare for GIFT TIME. Shareen sets the mood by whipping up a bunch of delectable lattes:


Carlynne is madly writing her poem before the gift opening begins:

Dan is showing off a Christmas present from his family: a remote control helicopter.


Dan was flying it around my Mom...

...who had to take cover from uncontrollable air craft:


We draw names, so we only got one gift, but it was a spankin good gift. Plus Shareen got us all stockings this year!!


I'm listening as Mom reads me her poem to go with my gift (she had my name, you see). Also, check out the wicked awesome earrings that were part of my stocking from Shareen. She's way too good to us! :

Dan & Lowell had each other's names and both had MARVELOUS poems. I guess that means they truly belong in the fam. Here they are sharing the brotherly love:

For some reason, the men (er, boys) had to partake in a post-gift-opening smoked oysters and herring out of CANS. GROSS! :

The next night we had a little hot tub party. Mom has those pictures, so, again, you'll have to trust me on this one (and hopefully Mama will send me the pictures).

On New Year's Eve, it was a mad dash back to Edmonton for the impromptu party we (Dan, Clyn, Lowell, and I) were having. Kev, Leah, Duane, Karyn & Jenna all came up from Airdrie, and Trav, Lis, Luke, and Ashley also joined us. We had a blast playing boys vs girls Catch Phrase, talking, laughing, eating, taking the LRT to the fireworks, walking home with all 13 of us linking arms and circling people while singing "Happy New Year!!" at the top of our lungs. I'm SURE people thought we were intoxicated...but we WEREN'T! We were just a large group of rather excitable (and slightly hyper) people.

Lucky for us that we just happen to be good friends with PHOTOGRAPHERS! Kev brought his camera, and these were the result:

Dan trying to describe the "catch phrase":

Duane & Karyn! :
Dan, Carlynne, and Jenna:

Trav & Lis :Trav being Trav in his fashionable tux shirt. The rest of us felt so under-dressed! :


Leah was bored? Excited? Exhausted? Slightly challenged? :

Leah and I:
Loweller:

These pictures are MY contribution. None of the other pictures had Kevan in them, so I HAD to include this one:

And I think that Leah looks so cute in this picture that I had to include it. She got pretty intense and giggly while playing Catch Phrase! Luke, you look cute too :) :


Yesterday Lowell went back to work AND school. He has now officially begun his Masters in Counseling Psychology. He's going to be a busy boy while I shall continue to be a lady of leisure until Monday! *sigh of contentment* :)